Why The Dark Phoenix Saga Is The Perfect Way to End the X-Men Movies

The X-Men movie series has had its ups and downs since beginning in 2000, and it looks like we're heading back into the latter territory. While X-Men: Apocalypse wasn't the worst superhero movie released in 2016, it definitely didn't measure up to its immediate two predecessors critically. It's becoming abundantly clear this superhero franchise is starting to show its age, and Fox apparently agrees. It was reported last week that the studio is considering "pressing the reset button," though it sounds like their approach would be more of a semi-reboot.

We talked last week about why it's a good idea for Fox to fully reboot the X-Men, i.e. start from scratch, but before that happens, the main series should conclude with one last hurrah. Fortunately for the studio, they have just the story for the job. It's been reported several times over the last year that the next main X-Men series will tackle the Dark Phoenix Saga, which was previously adapted for 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand. Here are the main reasons why this comic book storyline should end the current batch of main X-Men movies before a reboot is launched.

It Brings The Series Around Nearly Full Circle

Starting with X-Men: First Class and its 1960s setting, every main X-Men installment has jumped forward approximately a decade. More than half of X-Men: Days of Future Past balanced being set in 1973 with the apocalyptic future 50 years later, and X-Men: Apocalypse hopped to 1983. According to Bryan Singer, the next X-Men movie will continue this trend by taking place in the 1990s, which means the series will be the closest yet to coming nearly full circle with when the first X-Men movie happened, i.e. circa 2000.

Even though X-Men: Apocalypse marked the end of the "First Class" trilogy, this X-Men movie can serve as an epilogue of sorts and end this series close to the same time period it began. There would be something poetic leaving these characters close to how they were when we first met them. Granted, any story could technically work with this approach, but by using the Dark Phoenix saga, the studio receives the added bonus of ending the series with one of the biggest bangs possible...if executed properly, of course.